Rapunzel Reunites with Eugene and Escapes the Tower Again

Part 1 - Rapunzel is Trapped Again

I can't believe I'm back in this prison, Rapunzel realized.  Only now, it's gotten worse.

Thinking about her taste of freedom more than an hour ago, the young, slim blonde could feel tears coming forth as the shackles clamped on her wrists bit mercilessly into her skin.  With Pascal caged and dangling from the ceiling, poor Rapunzel could see no way out of her escalated predicament.

No!  Don't think like that.  There's got to be some way out of these shackles, she told herself in an attempt to think positive, although she knew that there wasn't at the time.  Mother Gothel had the only key to both the shackles and to Pascal's cage, and she had gone on a few errands and wouldn't be back until nightfall.

Rapunzel was about to lose all hope when she suddenly heard a voice from below.  "Rapunzel!  Blondie, are you in there?"

She thought she was hearing things until she decided with a sigh, Might as well check.  There's no one coming to my rescue anyway.  But as she turned toward the window and looked down, she was glad to be wrong, for gazing up at her was the familiar man who had broken into her tower the first time, the first real friend she had made in all her eighteen years of life.

"Eugene!" Rapunzel realized excitedly, using his real name.  "How did you escape from Maximus and the guards?"

"I have a talent for ventriloquism.  You know, throwing my voice?" Eugene replied wryly.  "Come on, you said you wanted to see the Floating Lights?  I'm here to make that dream come true."

"I'd love to, but there's a problem," Rapunzel replied sadly.  "There's no way up to or down from here now.  And even if I could escape, I wouldn't get far, not with these shackles on my wrists."

"You're handcuffed?" Eugene realized.

"Yeah," Rapunzel replied.  "Mother was furious with me when she found out I left, and when she clapped me in these irons, she also laced them with magic. So, even if I did escape, she would be able to track me."

"So you're tied up and confined to the tower," Eugene mused.  "Don't worry, Rapunzel, I think I've got a plan.  I just need to call on some friends."

"Friends from the Snuggly Duckling, right?" Rapunzel guessed.

"You know me too well, Blondie," Eugene said with a chuckle.  "Hang tight, OK?  I'll be back before that hair grows another couple of feet."

And with that, he raced off, leaving Rapunzel to wonder aloud to herself, "Hang tight?  Where am I gonna go?"  But seeing her only friend again, even for a moment, had rekindled the flame of hope in her heart, and now she was hoping he could get her the help she needed to escape.

Part 2 - Rapunzel is Rescued

Trying not to think about the cold steel biting into her wrists, Rapunzel waited patiently by the window for Eugene's return.  However, from his cage, Pascal could sense her desperation growing, and she knew it too, as it was two-and-a-half hours since her conversation with Eugene, and she was growing worried.

"You think he's coming back, Pascal?" Rapunzel asked the caged chameleon, and Pascal chirped a response, lowering his forelegs as if to tell his friend to keep hope alive.  On this, she told herself, "Right.  It only took one spark to rekindle my hope.  I have to have faith that Eugene will be back."

And as if in answer to her silent prayer, the familiar voice called up to her with, "Rapunzel!  Rapunzel, can you hear me?"

Ignoring the burning pain in her wrists, the young, slim blonde turned toward the window and saw Eugene.  "I knew you'd be back," she said warmly.

"Yeah, that thing about keeping promises you have, it must be rubbing off on me," Eugene told her.  "I set up a net underneath the former pulley you used to get down the first time.  All you have to do is wrap your hair around that plank sticking out and jump."

"And the net catches me.  Got it," Rapunzel finished with a smile.  "But what about my shackles?"

"I remembered what your mother looked like when she came for you," Eugene replied.  "I found her in the marketplace, picking up some odds and ends.  Remember those friends of mine from the Snuggly Duckling?  Well, they distracted her long enough for me to get... these."  He flashed a pair of keys on a chain, causing Rapunzel to squeal and jump for joy.

"You got her keys!" she cheered.

"It pays to be a professional pickpocket," Eugene said with a wink.  "Now come on, so I can get you out of those things."

Rapunzel nodded and headed for the only exit of the tower.  Throwing part of her hair toward the protruding plank where the pulley system used to be, she wrapped it around the plank and pulled on it to insure that it was taut.  Taking one look back at Pascal, she asked him, "Can you keep Mother occupied until I get back?"  He nodded from his cage, causing her to smile back, and then she took one great leap off the ledge, shouting, "Geronimo!" as she freefell toward the net below.

She landed safely in the net as planned, partly thanks to the incredible tensile strength of her hair providing a cushion to her freefall, and as Eugene helped her out, he asked her, "Geronimo?"

"Many daredevils say it when they freefall," Rapunzel replied simply, and then held up her shackled wrists.  "Hurry, get me out of these."

"Hold still, Blondie," Eugene instructed as he inserted the small key into the lock of her shackles and turned it.  To both their good fortune, the shackles opened, freeing Rapunzel's wrists.

Rapunzel sighed with relief as she massaged her wrists and rejoiced, "Ahh, free at last."

"That's one problem down," Eugene told her.  "Now we've got another."

"How are we going to fool Mother into thinking I'm still here?" Rapunzel recalled.

"That would be it," Eugene confirmed.

Rapunzel pondered the situation, and then snapped her fingers with, "I've got it.  Eugene, leave the shackles here.  Something tells me Mother will be focused more on the tracking spell within.  If we leave the shackles near the tower, we can deceive her into thinking I'm still trapped."

"Magic's not really reliable, is it?" Eugene wondered as he set the empty shackles in the grass.

"Not from what I've read," Rapunzel replied.  "Now, let's get to the city."  But before they left, she thanked her only friend with a hug and a whisper of, "Thank you for saving me."  This made Eugene start to blush as she released him gently.

"A little advice: You need to get trapped in that tower more often," Eugene joked, causing Rapunzel to chuckle as they made their way out of the forest glen.

(Photo created using AI by DarkfoxAI, story written by me)